


in another life

by crazytogethers



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Based on a Katy Perry Song, Character Death, Flashbacks, Fluff, Gay Mike Wheeler, Gay Will Byers, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, Mike Wheeler Loves Will Byers, Past and Present, Smoking, Strangers to Lovers, Underage Drinking, Will Byers Loves Mike Wheeler, Will misses Mike, in another life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-21 03:47:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30015663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crazytogethers/pseuds/crazytogethers
Summary: ‘In another life, I would make you staySo I don’t have to say you were the one that got awayThe one that got away’He stared at the road ahead of him, the sunlight almost hitting his side profile as the sun slowly started to set behind the tall buildings on his left. His hands were gripped tightly onto the steering wheel, his bottom lip was caught in between his teeth, only to stop the tears from rolling down his aged face. Flashbacks and flashbacks started swimming through his mind; that all of a sudden, he felt like he was once again in 1988 and 1989 combined.It’s been 30 years, Will thought.
Relationships: Will Byers & Mike Wheeler, Will Byers/Mike Wheeler
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	in another life

**Author's Note:**

> hey there! so this is my first time publishing a book on ao3, and i hope i’ll get easily used to this. :) 
> 
> as you can tell, this book is inspired or based on the song The One That Got Away by Katy Perry! it’s always been one of my favorite songs, and it kind of reminds me of byler too, so i decided to turn it into a fanfiction. 
> 
> anyways, i’m not an expert when it comes to writing, so if there are any mistakes, i apologize in advance. english also isn’t my first language, so beware of any grammatical errors. :) enjoy reading!

The sun coruscated through the blinds that were covering the glass windows at the very right next to the abode’s main entrance. No matter how bright and hot it seemed, it was adequate for the human beings who lived in the United States of America, knowing that they wouldn’t be able to catch sight of it and feel the last summer heat in the next couple months due to the beginning of the fall season. 

The daylight that was hitting the white-leathered chesterfield located ahead of the almost-covered casements was lucid enough to gouge Will’s eyes out, who had his back pressed against the wall between the main door and window as he stood askew. His arms were crossed over his chest, his right hand was slowly tapping his left arm. He looked away from the dazzling sunshine, his eyes squinting a little at how much the light caused him pain, setting his gaze on his wristwatch. It read 4:57 PM. 

He immediately put his head up as he heard light footsteps approaching toward his direction. He caught sight of a woman wearing an oversized hoodie, pairing it with pajamas, as she stepped out of the last stair of the mini stairway. As if she felt Will’s eyes on her, she glanced at him and smiled. 

“I’m sorry if I’m letting you wait too long, I just don’t remember where I hid it,” she apologized, slowly walking over to the living room. 

Will frowned, quickly shaking his head. “It’s okay, no worries. Take your time.” he replied, giving her a smile. 

She smiled back, nodding her head, then bent down in front of the TV stand, checking each drawers. “Why don’t you take a seat?” 

Will shook his head. “No, I’m good. Besides, your couch seems a bit too clean for me to sit on. It won’t like my butt.” he joked. 

She let out a chuckle. “Come on, Uncle Will, I know it’s too white but it’s leathered. It’s easy to clean,” she said as she continued searching for something certain inside each of the drawers. “Now take a seat. I don’t wanna get blamed by Dad if your old ass gets tired and be injured or something.” she joked, giggling a little. 

Will scoffed, rolling his eyes, but eventually settled down on the white couch, his back reclining against the backrest with his right arm resting on the chesterfield’s armrest. “Excuse me, Nadine. For your information, I’m only fourty-nine. I’m not  _that_ old,” he ragged. “Which means I don’t get tired fast enough. Unless I stand for longer than twenty minutes, you know.”

Nadine scoffed. “Whatever,” she said as she shuffled some of the things inside of one of the drawers, muttering at herself once some of the stuff flew off the wooden box. 

Will stared at his 22 year old niece, a bit amazed at how time flew by so quickly. He could still remember holding her in his arms the day she was born, noticing the small details of her features that she got from her mother and her mother’s brother; her other uncle. Her pointed nose and freckled cheeks — Will knew where Nadine got it from. He smiled to himself. 

“You remind me of your mother a lot,” Will said all of a sudden. 

Nadine glanced at him, eyebrows slightly furrowed. “Oh yeah?” she questioned, shifting to the last drawer of her TV stand. 

“Yeah,” he repeated, running his left hand through his soft, medium length, brown hair. “But you do look a lot more like your uncle than your own parents.” 

Nadine chuckled. “Yeah, like I don’t get told by Mom that almost everyday when I still lived with them—” she paused with a gasp, followed by an: “Oh look, I found it! Didn’t think it would be hiding here somewhere,” she brushed the brown-leathered cover of the book she was holding, blowing the dust out of it. “Anyways, yeah, Mom and Dad used to always just stare at me during the most casual times ever just to tell me that I look like Mom’s brother. It’s kinda annoying, if you ask me.” she stood up, walking over to the chesterfield. 

“Annoying? Come on, your uncle was—” he paused, holding back the words he was supposed to blurt out. He didn’t know what word would sound right, and he felt like the word that he was about to say wasn’t  _right._

Nadine sat next to him while staring at the brown book’s front and back, almost like she was inspecting it. “He’s what?” she asked, eyes still glued on the huge binder. 

Still finding the right word to say, Will took a deep breath, slowly exhaling it afterwards. He looked around the lounge area, trying to avoid the question but he knew he couldn’t, so he gave up and said, “Beautiful.” 

Who would’ve thought that that word was the only thing that could make Nadine rip her eyes off the leathered book? 

She slowly tipped her head to Will’s direction, her brown eyes going a little wide with the corner of her lips curving up to a small smile. “You think so?” she asked genuinely. 

Will’s breath hitched.  _I shouldn’t have said that,_ he thought. 

“Yeah, I mean, you’ve seen him before, right?” Will nervously asked, his hazel eyes setting on the binder in Nadine’s hands. 

“Through pictures, yes I did,” she answered, not letting go of the genuine smile attached on her tanned face. “You got me wrong, though. I didn’t think that it was annoying that I look like my uncle. The annoying part is,” she paused, holding out the _‘s’,_ “the fact that my parents would stare deep into my soul almost every single day only to tell me that I look like him as if I wasn’t aware.” she looked away, dusting the book’s front one more time. “Here,” she said, handing Will the book with a smile on her face. 

He took it gently, smiling at his niece in return. “Thanks, Nadine. Nice to know that Jonathan let you take this with you from Indiana to New York.” he commented, running his hand over the book’s cover. 

Nadine chuckled. “Well, he told me to. He knew you’d want to borrow this anytime soon, and he didn’t want you to drive all the way from New York to Indiana for a photo album, you know.” 

Will laughed, shaking his head. “I mean, I definitely  _will_ do that, but I’d rather not. You taking this here is a good idea, actually.” 

“I know how important that is to you, and Mom and Dad do to,” she grinned as she started playing with her chest length, light brown hair. “It holds a lot of memories, doesn’t it?” 

Will opened the photo book, stroking the handwritten letters on the very front page. It was a thick piece of paper that used to be plain white, but was now a brownish yellow due to how old it was. It smelt past its prime, but still fresh for Will’s liking. “It does,” he flipped the first page, seeing two takes of a young Jonathan Byers next to an infant Will Byers. Will had his little hand wrapped around his older brother’s pointer finger, a gummy smile attached on his baby face. 

“Aww, you and Dad look so cute there, Uncle Will,” Nadine shifted a little closer to Will to get a better look of the 49 year old photographs. “How old were you two?”

“Hmm,” Will paused to think. “I’m pretty sure Jonathan was around four years old, and I was probably three months old. The bad quality explains it.” he chuckled. 

Nadine hummed. “It’s not that bad. Well, maybe because of how old these pictures are. Yours and Dad’s cuteness can still be seen, though.” 

Will laughed, shaking his head a little. He never thought his niece would call baby him cute, so he thought it was pretty funny. He then flipped it to the next page, seeing three medium sized photographs of only him as a baby. All of them were shots of him having his mouth wide open, smiling widely, toothless. He let out a laugh. 

“What is this? It’s ridiculous!” he scoffed as he played with the page’s corners. 

“It’s not! Babies smiling will always be the cutest,” Nadine demurred. “But you were toothless, so it’s pretty funny.” she teased. 

Will playfully rolled his eyes. “I knew you’d say that.”

“You’re a sassy 49 year old, you know that, right?” she chaffed. 

Furrowing his eyebrows, Will looked up at her. “What?”

“You are, Uncle Will. The eye rolls say it all. I bet you were worse back in the day.” she said as she untangled her hair with her fingers. 

“How dare you say that,” Will sneered at her, accidentally rolling his eyes once more. Before he could even protest, Nadine immediately spoke. 

“See? I wasn’t lying!” Nadine slightly yelled, followed by loud laughs. 

“Hey, lower your voice! Your neighbors are gonna hate you,” Will scolded, but couldn’t help but smile a little. 

His relationship with his niece was probably the best he’d had in such a long time. Being 49 wasn’t nice, he could barely enjoy life anymore, he could barely hangout with his childhood friends since all of them had their own lives and families now. Out of all of his friends, there were only two of them who didn’t have a family, and one of them was Will. 

He  _did_ think of having one, though, but after everything that happened, he thought that it wasn’t his top priority anymore. He already had plans for his future when he was younger; everything was proposed right, but as he thought about it everyday since he turned 30, a part of him didn’t like the thought of having his own family now. Maybe he would have, if he was still with  _**him**._

Will and Nadine grew up with a very close relationship between each other, as if they were siblings. Even though they tease each other a lot, Nadine still had so much respect for Will, knowing that he was 22 years older than her. 

He was always there for Nadine ever since she was born. He would take care of her if her parents needed to take night shifts for their jobs, and he’d always visit them every weekends to play with her, and to give Jonathan and Nancy some time alone, perchance to hang out without some kid. 

Will liked kids, sort of. He even wanted one, but he knew he couldn’t. He just... _knew._

He stood like Nadine’s second father as a child, even until now, but he’d rather be called as her older brother than that, since he thought that it didn’t feel right for Nadine’s own parents. A bit disrespectful, his guess. But he still treated her like his own daughter, he just didn’t like being called her second father. 

Because of his oldness, Will barely got to hang out with his friends anymore, or even try to make friends his age. Making friends at the lifetime of 49 wasn’t a prime concern any longer, and of course he knew that. He felt alone. He  _was_ alone. Nadine made him feel the opposite, though. He’d always be thankful to have a niece like her, and he knew that Nadine was further thankful to have an uncle like him, too. 

“They already do,” Nadine joked. The two burst out laughing, not minding anything, anyone, just having fun like he was still young, like he was still twenty-two.  _Or not._

 _Having fun like I’m still seventeen, that’s the correct number,_ Will thought. 

They had a few more conversations with chuckles and laughters in between words as they looked through the first five pages of the Byers’ photo album. It didn’t have many pictures of Jonathan as a baby, howbeit, because that book was supposed to be centered for Will only, and Jonathan had his own. Jonathan kept and took care of Will’s photo album for a reason, and that was scarcely why it didn’t dwell with Will.

After about ten minutes of talking about the past, or, ten minutes of Nadine continuously calling her uncle as a baby cute, Will decided to finally rise to his feet, closing the book shut as he primped his dark washed blue jeans. 

“Well, uh, it’s getting a bit late,” Will said as he tilted his head to the side, eyeing the late afternoon sky behind the glass windows. “I think I should head home.”

Nadine stood up after him, stretching her arms a shade. “Sure, thanks for visiting. I know you only stopped by to borrow that stupi—I’m sorry, that photo album of yours, but I like to think that you came here for  _me._ ” she smiled teasingly. 

Will chuckled, bringing his hand up to ruffle the 22 year old’s light brown hair until it went messy. “Yeah, you’re right, I only came here for this,” he said, holding up the leathered brown photo book. “but at least I got to pay you a visit. So technically, I came here for  _you,_ too.” 

Nadine scoffed, rolling her eyes. Will instantly noticed it. 

“Oh look who’s the sassy one now,” he teased, catching the woman’s attention. 

“Guess who I got it from,” she teased back, earning a playful scowl from her uncle. She immediately started laughing, with Will just standing there, shaking his head. 

“Whatever,” he said, a short chuckle coming out of his mouth in between syllables. “Anyway, thank you for welcoming me to your modern winter-ish house, or apartment, and for taking your time to look for this photo book for me, Nadine.” he gave her a genuine smile. 

“It’s no problem, Uncle Will. You’re always welcome here, remember that.” Nadine hurled back, a small upfront smile plastered on her face. 

Will stepped closer to her, giving her a nice, warm hug. He could still remember how Nadine used to hug him each time he visited Jonathan’s home back in Hawkins when she was only five or six, how tight she would hug him as if she didn’t want to let go. She hadn’t been embosomed by Will in forever, or sometimes they would but not as much as how they used to. Nadine was twenty-two, and of course, Will knew that it would be awkward for her. He felt the same thing with his mother and relatives back in the day, so he made sure he wouldn’t cross his niece’s boundaries.

And since they hadn’t held each other close in a while, Will had noticed a slight difference. Something that felt odd. 

_She,_ Will thought,  _she hugs just like him, too._

They pulled apart, bidding each other their farewells as Will made his way to where he parked his car. 

As soon as he got inside and started driving away, he couldn’t stop smiling to himself. The feeling of having Nadine around was like she was his own daughter, and how he wished to have one. He wouldn’t lie, some part of him still wanted a family for his own, but didn’t want to at the same time. All of his plans got ruined, and he never thought of trying to fix it again. Now he was 49, too old to restart his life. He felt like he regretted everything he did about a decade ago, or years ago, and he knew how much  _**he**_ would hate him if  _**he**_ knew about what he had done. But it was too late now, he couldn’t go back to the past and fix his life. 

As he reached the freeway, Will noticed that the surrounding was too silent — the sound of the vehicles’ wheels rolling down the road around him with some of the drivers honking for no reason. He stretched his arm that wasn’t operating the steering wheel, pressing his car’s stereo button. A heavy metal rock music suddenly played out loud, making Will flinch and cover his one ear with his free hand. He immediately turned down the volume, then switched it to a different channel. He found one that was playing old songs, mostly from the 1980’s, so he stopped right there.

His house was a little far from Nadine’s, about an hour and thirty minutes away without traffic, so Will knew that that would be quite a long drive for him. He kept his eyes locked on the road, his gripped hand tapping on the steering wheel, following the songs’ bass. 

He looked down at the small screen attached on the center of his car — located at the right side of the driver’s seat — checking the current time. With that day’s date; it read  _September 21st, 2020, 6:06 PM._

Will let out a sharp sigh.  _This’ll be a long drive, indeed,_ he thought.

Thirty minutes of feet stepped on two of the three pedals; one foot switching from the accelerator to the brake every two minutes or so, humming or singing along to Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, Queen, and George Michael on the radio, Will kept his eyes and mind focused on the approach. It was slowly getting darker outside, the sun seemed like it was about to set in under twenty minutes or an addition. 

“What did I do so wrong, so wrong... that you had to leave me alone...” Will sang the last words of the current song that was playing, which was Careless Whisper by George Michael. The song’s outro slowly commenced to fade out as Will took a look at both of the side mirrors. 

The green light suddenly switched to red, bringing the vehicles in lane to a standstill.  _180 seconds,_ Will read the amount of time he’d need before carrying on with steering. 

As he was waiting for the red light and stop sign to turn green, the radio started playing an unfamiliar song that Will thought he’d never heard. The song started off with a loud bass, followed by the rhythm slowly fading in, then the singer started crooning.

**_Summer after high school when we first met_ **

**_We make out in your Mustang to Radiohead_ **

**_And on my 18th birthday, we got matching tattoos_ **

Will’s attention immediately turned to the music playing in the background. He definitely had never heard of that song, but the lyrics were leisurely entering his mind, making him want to focus on it. He brought his right hand up to the one clutched onto the steering wheel, taking hold of his left wrist. 

**_Used to steal your parents’ liquor, and climb to the roof_ **

**_Talk about our future like we had a clue_ **

**_Never planned that one day, I’d be losing you_ **

His heart started beating eminently fast that it almost felt like it was about to create a hole through his chest and jump right out of it. He bit his lip, holding onto his wrist fairly tighter. 

**_In another life_ **

**_I would be your girl_ **

**_We keep all our promises_ **

**_Be us against the world_ **

He stared at the stop light,  _136 seconds,_ it read, but his mind was utterly concentrated on the strains booming out of his car’s speakers. 

**_In another life_ **

**_I would make you stay_ **

**_So I don’t have to say you were the one that got away_ **

**_The one that got away_ **

It continued playing, entering his ears, but his mind was stuck in the latter lyrics that were sung by the artist, which he assumed was a woman named Katy Perry. Of course he knew who she was, but he didn’t care about her. Besides, he wasn’t a fan of the newer generation’s music. Not that he hated it, it just didn’t fit his liking. And that was why he was shocked about that new song he was currently hearing; the melody, the harmonies, the lyrics,  _the lyrics_ —  they were _perfect._

 _The lyrics._ They were beyond compared, but it was  _scary._

He couldn’t understand why the words hit him so hard, why they were so accurate, why he could relate to it the most. It was so damn accurate, the lyrics sounded like the type of words that he would ever write if he was a songwriter. It matched everything so well,  _so fucking well._ Even the very beginning of the song, it was like fantasy. 

_Who could’ve written this and why does it reflect my story so perfectly?,_ he thought really, really deeply. 

Will was too focused on his thoughts that he forgot about the stop light; which was still gladly ongoing, reading  _42 seconds._ The forgotten song playing in the background that Will didn’t realize it had reached its bridge. 

**_All these money can’t buy me a time machine, no_ **

**_Can’t replace you with a million rings, no_ **

**_I should’ve told you what you meant to me, woah_ **

**_‘Cause now I pay the price_ **

Will bit his lip harder, his right hand that was clutched onto his left wrist slid away, hauling it to his chest, feeling his heartbeats going faster and faster. 

_Can’t replace you with a million rings, I should’ve told you what you meant to me, ‘cause now I pay the price,_ Will repeated in his head,  _that one. That one hit hard._

He couldn’t puzzle out why all of a sudden, all of that had to happen. There was never a day that he didn’t think of  _**him** ,_ of how much he regretted letting that happen. Every single day of his life, he never thought of anything else but  _that day, that night,_ how he’d been blaming himself for three straight decades, how he’d dream of that same night every once in a while, only to remind himself how much he’d fucked up. Hearing that song was no help, all it did was make him go off his head once again.

As he tried to clear his mind, the stop light had finally turned green, letting Will — who was first in line — to start driving away instantly, as if leaving that part of the road would help him forget about the past, as if it would make the song stop. 

He could switch channels anytime he wanted, but he chose not to. He didn’t want to, first of all. He wanted to hear the whole song, no matter how much pain he had felt ‘cause of it. He didn’t care, he wanted to hear what he  _wanted_ to hear. 

**_In another life_ **

**_I would make you stay_ **

**_So I don’t have to say you were the one that got away_ **

**_The one that got away_ **

He stared at the road ahead of him, the sunlight almost hitting his side profile as the sun slowly started to set behind the tall buildings on his left. His hands were gripped tightly onto the steering wheel, his bottom lip was caught in between his teeth, only to stop the tears from rolling down his aged face. Flashbacks and flashbacks started swimming through his mind; that all of a sudden, he felt like he was once again in 1988 and 1989 combined.

_It’s been 30 years,_ Will thought.

**Author's Note:**

> well hello again :D i hope you liked the prologue! i’m sorry if it’s a little confusing (the way it’s written, not the plot) but i’m trying my best. writing a book in english is definitely harder than i thought, even though i’ve already tried writing a few other english books before. i promise, i’ll try to improve my writing. :)
> 
> also, if ‘uncle Will’ made you laugh or cringe, it’s okay. i find it kinda weird and funny too, haha. i just can’t imagine Will being an uncle in the future, you know? 
> 
> IMPORTANT NOTE: this whole story will be written in past tense (ex. “Will was laughing” instead of “Will is laughing” etc), just in case you’re confused. 
> 
> SIDE NOTE: the italicized he’s and him’s in bold texts are referring to a different man, which you’ll find out later, and it isn’t Will. :)


End file.
